About the Editor

Carlos da Silva Campos.

Professional journalist, with background on the economical press and Packaging Editor since 1982, heading independent magazines REVIPACK (packaging), REVIPLAST (plastics) and REVIPROJECT (automation).
Lawyer since 1984 and and Packaging Consultant since 1986, working for several industry associations related to packaging and recycling. Honorary Member of IPPO - the International Packaging Press Organisation. Served as Vice-President (1996-1999) and Chairman (1999-2002).

The international meeting MeetingPack 2017 will be held on 30 and 31 May in Valencia (Spain). It is organized by AINIA CENTRO TECNOLÓGICO and AIMPLAS and it will bring together more than 300 experts in food plastic packaging from different countries.

The event brings together the whole food packaging value chain. Big food multinationals, packaging, materials and packaging equipment manufacturers, as well as representatives of the distribution sector and other agents, such as public managers that plan the management and control policies in Europe, experts in food legislation and technologists will attend the event. Some of the companies that have already confirmed the attendance are UBE, Dow Chemical, Repsol, M&G and Danone.

This edition focuses on the topic «Convenience: Driving Barrier Packaging Innovation», where the big global technologic challenges in this field will be discussed, challenges like barrier materials, new manufacturing and packaging systems, sealable and reclosable materials, additive manufacturing, industry 4.0, sustainable packages and recycling, active packages and advances in quality test and control. To see the programm of MWEETINGPACK 2017, click HERE.

Packages, in particular with barrier material, play a current and future demand-driven key role of the convenience requirement of European consumers and the challenge of overcoming the food waste or the need of increasing the shelf life of products and the food safety.

Furthermore, it coincides with the event Made From Plastic 2017, which had more than 100 exhibitors and 3,500 visitors in its last editions.

REVIPACK N.º 230 features a report about the new beer bottling plant of UNICER and its new automated warehouse. This major industrial investment includes technological solutions from KHS (bottling lines), warehouse automation (EFACEC) and drives (SEW-EURODRIVE). This edition is focused on logistics and intralogistics. Why wood pallets continue to be preferred? The answer lies in the combination of quality, price and sustainability, says Paulo Verdasca, manager of MADECA. CHEP highlights the economic and environmental advantages of collaborative transportation. However, there is also a market for plastic pallets, with specific solutions as those developed by NORTPALET and IPS-Cabka. Palletizing is more than just put the product on a pallet. This edition of REVIPACK also highlights strapping systems and stretch wrapping films. REMBALCOM has developed a new stretch film with stretching capacity of 400%. In the field of intralogistics, this issue highlights several conveying solutions. ANTÍPODA, for example, is doing more and more business within the European market with modular solutions customer designed. In this edition, REVIPACK also features several innovations and trends in food packaging, packaging machines and labeling and coding systems. The digital REVIPACK edition (PDF file) has been sent to Subscribers. To read it online just on the cover image.

A transparent plastic can for canned food, oxygen absorbers that increase the food shelf-life and bags to pack wine or oil are some of the innovations lunched during MeetingPack2015, the packaging conference held in Valencia from 25th to 26th of February.

Kortec has launched a transparent plastic can that can be used for packaging food that used to be packaged in metallic cans. They permit to keep the food shelf-life up to five years.

Absorbers

In Europe 95 kg of food are wasted per person per year, five times more than in Japan. One option for increasing the shelf-life of sensible-to-oxygen-action packaged food is through the incorporation of oxygen scavengers, as Mitsubishi has done, capable to remove the remaining oxygen from inside the packages, in order to avoid the oxidation reactions that damage food and increase the shelf-life in a healthier way. The oxygen scavengers can be included as extern agents to the package, as labels or little bags inside. This kind of technology is really used in Japan because of its oxidation prevention qualities, changes of food colour, but it is not so extended in Europe. One of the advantages of oxygen scavengers is that they do not need additional industrial equipment to use these technologies. It also prevents the oxidation of oils and fat, so a better preservation of the nutritional qualities of the food is obtained.

Launched in 2011, the ideia is still regarded as a novelty: to make pack and sell a pizza wuth the shape of an…ice cream. M.E.G.I.C. Pizza (Italy) holds the patent. Hasta La Pizza is a pizza with a chopstick, individual dose, sold in a flexible pack, similar to ice cream pillow packs. Can be heated in the grill, oven or, better of all, in a toaster. Two minutes and its ready to eat. The 60 g unidose concept solves some of the convenience issues, turning pizza more practical ans nomadic for the multiple take away applications.

EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, evaluated ten recycling processes of post-consumer PET packaging waste used by several companies, including Evertis, from Portugal. All processes are based on the "basic technology" from EREMA, a recycling equipment manufacturer based in Austria.

Flavoured milk consumption will grow at more than double the rate of white milk globally between 2012 and 2015. This forecast is the main topic of the sixth edition of the "Dairy Index", a research paper regulary published by Tetra Pak. The surge in demand for ready-to-drink flavoured milk will drive the dairy industry growth. Consumers are increasingly turning to tasty, nutritious and conveniently packaged flavoured milk as an alternative to other beverages, creating opportunities for dairies to improve profitability. Flavoured milk, the second most widely consumed Liquid Dairy Product (LDP) after white milk, is forecast to increase by a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 4.1% between 2012 and 2015, rising from 17.0 billion litres to 19.2 billion litres. Developing countries will drive demand amidst a growing number of new flavours and products focused on health. White milk is forecast to grow by 1.7% (CAGR) during the same period – from 208.5 billion litres in 2012 to 219.5 billion litres in 2015. Total LDP demand is set to grow by 2.4% from 280.3 billion litres to 301.3 billion litres during this period, according to Tetra Pak research.

SABIC, one of the biggest polyolefins (polyethylenes and polypropylenes) producer, has now all of its food safety and compliance declarations available on line, three years ahead of the required 2016 deadline. The declarations are available on the European pages of the company.

The new regulations involve more stringent testing on the ways migration from packaging into food is tested. As these new regulations come into force over the next three years, plastics processors and packaging companies will need to seek further assurances on compliance from their materials suppliers.

EU Plastics Regulation (EU) 10/2011 (PIM) came into force on May 1, 2011, and introduces several changes to regulations embodied in Council Directive 82/711/EC, particularly with reference to testing conditions for migration of individual chemicals and in what can be used in the tests to simulate actual foods. There are changes to the duration of some tests, to the temperatures at which some tests are carried out, and to the simulants for aqueous and alcoholic products inside the packaging. However, the new regulation will not become compulsory until January 1, 2016.

For PE and PP, SABIC already has assessed all substances regulated with a Specific Migration Limit (SML) under the new conditions (10 days at 60ºC). Its tests showed that none of its PE or PP materials will be subject to additional restrictions for use in food contact applications.

Food contact legislation in Europe is based on the principle that all substances are forbidden unless they are explicitly allowed. As far as migration from the package to the contents is concerned, there are strict limits on specific migration (SML, relating to individual chemicals) and overall migration (OML, the sum of all specific migrations).

While there is no formal obligation for them to execute migration tests, all manufacturers of plastics raw materials have to provide a Document of Conformity (DoC) to their direct customer, providing confirmation that the material meets the relevant legal requirements. Additionally, they have to disclose the identity of monomers and additives, regulated with an SML and/or QM restriction, as well as the identity of “dual-use” additives, and they have to provide information on restrictions of use if relevant.